My City Council would like to develop a new policy that would prohibit the hiring of persons who smoke. I have read where some fire departments do this for obvious reasons. Is this something employers can get away with?

In my state employers cannot prohibit employees from engaging in legal activity off the job. So, we could not have a blanket policy against hiring smokers. However, we have a provision in the collective bargaining agreement with our firefighters union that employees will refrain from using tobacco.

I know some communities add a surcharge to health insurance premiums for smokers as a way to encourage employees to quit smoking.